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Swimmers fail to fire

Swimmers fail to fire

Kevin Kung (left) interviews fencer Nicholas Edward Choi who lost in the round of 16

The Hong Kong team finished a dismal seventh in the mixed 4x100 metres freestyle relay at the Youth Olympic Games now being held in Singapore.

The team fielded a unique starting line-up for Sunday's event. Other teams had boys swimming at the beginning and end of the race, but Hong Kong decided to have boys for the first two legs and girls for the final two laps.

Jeff Lum Ching-tat swam the first 100m and finished fifth. Up next was Kent Cheung Kin-tat, who raced ahead of his opponents - all of whom were girls - to claim first place. After Hong Kong's Yu Wai-ting won the third leg, all eyes were on Yvette Kong Man-yi, who had to beat her male rivals to win gold for Hong Kong.

But Kong struggled against her bigger and stronger opponents, coming in a disappointing seventh.

'We competed in lane eight and the seven boys from the other lanes were making big splashes. It was so bad, I had difficulty swimming in a straight line. This was something I had never encountered in my career before,' Kong said.

In the cadet male individual foil competition held on Tuesday, Hong Kong's Nicholas Edward Choi impressed in the preliminary rounds, winning three out of six matches. He entered the round of 16 as the sixth seed, but was defeated by Boeskov Tsoroins of Denmark.

Choi had defeated Tsoroins in an earlier round, but the local fencer had no answer to his rival's play this time. 'I was nervous and lost too many points at the beginning. It was too late for me to catch up. I will now stay focused and prepare for the team event,' Choi said.